The GMD Archives — Behind the Cauldron
center|450px A movie produced by a fraction of a team wasn't really something new. In the late 1930's, Walt Disney would put part of his team working on Bambi, while the other half was working on Dumbo. ''As a side project, he had also got some of his artists working on a potential ''Alice in Wonderland movie since 1939, and the production of the 1951''Alice in Wonderland'' eventually lasted 12 years, a majority of which also saw other movies seeing the light. So no. It wasn't new. But what was new, was that the Great Mouse Detective project was developped not only in the back of The Black Cauldron, but also in the back of the boss. ''During production, some members of the ''Black Cauldron ''crew decided that this led to nowhere, that the ''Black Cauldron could never make a convincing Disney classic, and whenever they could they started developping another project, namely Basil of Baker Street. Reports published in official Disney books have that they eventually made a rough storyboard of the story, covering the walls of numerous rooms of the studios, and showed it to the manager of the Disney company at the time. Amazed, he gave them a budget to work further on Basil of Baker Street, and had the artists that were still working on the Black Cauldron at the time immediately start working on Basil after The Black Cauldron ''was released. That is the story. Let's dig it deepter. First of all, '''we want names'. So who were these crew members ? The answer is easy: John Musker and Ron Clements, who ended up directors on The Great Mouse Detective but were only animators on The Black Cauldron. Ron Clements and John Musker were 33 years old when The Great Mouse Detective ''was released in 1986. Here are the two fellows: center|400px As for the director, he was Ron Miller. He was Walt Disney himself's son-in-law and somehow inherited the company's management in 1978 when Wolfgang Reither retired. As far as we know, and no offense to Mr Miller, he wasn't ''that good at that. But there is a very simple reason: he had never worked on animation before. His role in the company before was to produce live-action movies. He didn't really know how an animation studio worked from the inside. He was deposited in 1984, in favor of a triumwirat made of Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Frank Wells. Here is a picture of Mr Miller when he was still in charge of the animation department (I have all reasons of thinking that this storyboard behind is one for the short The Small one, although I could be wrong). center Now, let's put it again: deposited in 1984. Does it ring any bell ? No ? I put a timeline: *1971: Disney acquires the rights to The Black Cauldron. *1973: Pre-production starts on The Black Cauldron. *1978: Ron Miller starts directing the Disney company. *1980: Official productions of The Black Cauldron begins. *198?: Ron Clements and John Musker show their Basil of Baker Street project to Miller. *1984: Ron Miller gets replaced with Eisner, Katzenberg and Wells. *1985: The Black Cauldron is released in theaters. *1986: The Great Mouse Detective is released in theaters. Now, does the bell ring ? 'Ron Miller, who was favorable to the project, got deposited while ''The Great Mouse Detective was still in production. 'That's no good news for our favorite mouse. center|400px Now what is the new trio up to ? Mr Eisner, whose picture you just have seen, did not like what was going at Walt Disney Animation Studios. When the team said that ''The Black Cauldron ''was finished, he cut a few scenes himself, much to the team's disappointment and astonishment (cutting finalized scenes is a very unusual practice in animation, where scenes are more often deleted while still storyboards). And he changed a few things on the project of ''Basil of Baker Street. First, the name. He decided (who knows why ?) that it sounded "too english" (a story set in London has rights to "sound english", but this obviously either didn't cross Eisner's mind, or was overruled by him in favor of euphony). Then, he drastically reduced the budget allowed by Ron Miller, from 24 000 000 to 10 000 000 dollars only. I may seem a little too harsh. At his discharge, the scenes he cut from The Black Cauldron really deserved it, and should normally have been deleted much earlier; and after the financial failure of The Black Cauldron, giving a small movie such a big budget wasn't economically wise. But still. Eventually, in 1985, when The Black Cauldron was released and out of the Disney studio's concern, it was time for Basil of… I beg your pardon, The Great Mouse Detective to shine by himself. In next posts, we'll explore more concept material produced during this chaotic period. Catégorie:The Great Mouse Detective Archives